"Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
-- George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

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Saturday, February 25, 2017

Provocateur

It's been an interesting week for poor Milo, no? Having not been familiar with him except by name, until his appearance last week on Bill Maher's show, I didn't really know what to expect. By the end of the segment, I guess it was mildly surprising how utterly fact-free and hacky the guy really is. I thought there'd be at least some nugget of principle, some vague core conviction of contrarianism or something.

But he's nothing but a confection of queer-lib schtick and bratty hair-pulling third-grader. He's basically a gay British Bart Simpson, minus the charm. Even Rush Limbaugh is entertaining on rare occasions. The idea that someone like Milo has any impact on the political world should give one an idea of how far gone we are. This is just "think of the stupidest thing you can, make something out of it, and do it in character."
So he found out the hard way that while there are few true lines anymore, especially with his crowd, there are a few, and they are very real. And he's finding out what his little nerd brat pack are all about to find out -- they've been played, they're a bunch of dipshit suckers, and their idiot nihilism only lasts until Mom loses the house and the basement is no longer there for them. They are playing a game, without realizing the true stakes of that game, and "fame" in the internet sense can turn into infamy in a very real sense all too quickly.

Milo and his little alt-buddies were useful to the real right only as a convenient totem. And now that their "prank" has come to fruition, they are no longer of use, and we can all share in the consequences. Though not equally, of course -- as a straight, married, middle-aged white guy with a college degree and a working-class backstory, I can pass, and I'll get by in this brave new world just like before.

But the people that brought Milo to fame regard him as just another flaming queer, and they treat him and his ilk poorly in the real world. (And the racists and neo-nazis, because they're stuck in their southern shitholes, are going to be sold down the river next, and it will be fun to watch. They can't fucking die fast enough, afaic.)

And now Milo has been cast adrift into that very real world, where no one on either side, outside the Breitbart pro-troll safe space, finds his rambunctious schtick cute. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.